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Encyclopedia References

by Phil Maxwell, November 2004-

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Encyclopedia/Dictionary Resources: ANTICHRIST

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

There are seven sets of passages which are noteworthy:

I. Christ's predictions of false christs and false prophets (Mt 21:3-31).

The false christs and false prophets (Mt 24) point to the pretenders to Messiahship before the fall of Jerusalem, the foreshadowing of the future impostors about to deceive all but; the elect. They are the spirits of demons which prepare the false prophet's way, but they are not the false prophet himself (Rv 16:13-14).

II. John's prophecy of "Antichrist" (this name occurs only with him) (1 Jn 2:18-23; 4:1-3; 2 Jn 5,7).

John's Antichrist is stated to have been a subject of his oral teaching first (1 Jn 2:18; 4:3), so Paul (2 Th 2:5), and is therefore alluded to, not described. All who deny Jesus's Messiahship and Sonship (as Cerinthus and the Gnostics of John's days) forerun the Antichrist "to come" (the same Greek verb is used as of Christ's" coming").

III. Paul's "adversary" (Greek antikeimenos, in sound and sense answering to Antichrist) (2 Th 2:1-12; 2 Ti 3:1-5), "in the last days, perilous times," characterized by heady high mindedness, with the form but without the power of godliness, the love of pleasure supplanting the love of God, contrasted with the earlier "latter times," marked by seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, celibacy, and abstinence from meats (1 Ti 4:1-5).

Paul's antikeimenos, "who opposeth all that is called God," is the "Antichrist" of John. He is not to come until "he who now letteth (hinders) and that which withholdeth" (hinders; the same Greek verb as before, only neuter instead of masculine) be taken out of the way; i.e., the curbing power of human law (neuter) and the curber (masculine), namely, the Roman emperor and whoever may be representative of the fourth world kingdom's power just before Antichrist. The unanimous consent of the early Christians that the Roman empire is "what withholdeth" was so unlikely to suggest itself to them, inasmuch as regarding it as idolatrous and often persecuting, that this explanation seems to have been preserved from Paul's oral teaching. Another less probable view is that the Holy Spirit is "He who now letteth," and the elect church the thing "that withholdeth," and that is to be taken out of the way on the eve of Antichrist's coming.

IV. Daniel's "little horn" from among the ten horns of the fourth beast, or Roman empire (Da 7:7-27).

Daniel's "little horn" (Da 7:7-27) of the fourth kingdom is the papacy as a temporal power, rising on the ruins of the Roman empire, and plucking up three of its ten horns.

V. Daniel's "little horn" from one of the four notable horns of the third beast, or Graeco-Macedonia divided into four at Alexander's death, the willful king (Da 8:8-25; 11:36-39).

Distinct from the" little horn" of Da 8, which is connected with the third, not the fourth, kingdom; ANTIOCHUS Epiphanes, of the Syrian fourth part of the divided Graeco-Macedonian or third kingdom, who persecuted the Jews, prohibited circumcision, and substituted the worship of Jupiter Olympius, with whom he identified himself as if God, instead of that of Jehovah, in the temple at Jerusalem. But this Old Testament Antichrist has a worse antitype in the New Testament, namely, the Antichrist of the last days. The language of Da 8:8-25 and Da 11:36-39, partially fulfilled by Antiochus, is exhaustively fulfilled only in the last Antichrist.

VI. The beast from the sea (Rv 13:1-8), ridden by the whore (Rv 17:1-7).

As the beast from the sea has ten horns, comprising both E. and W., and power is given to it for forty-two months (Rv 13:1,5), so the little horn (Da 7:3,7) absorbs the power of the ten-horned fourth beast out of the sea (the Roman empire) and wears out the saints for three and a half times (3 1/2 years, i.e. 42 months, or 1260 years, a year for a day). Both have "a mouth speaking great things" (Da 7:8,11,20,25); both blaspheme against the Most High (Rv 13:6-7); both make war with the saints, and prevail; both persecute the saints (Rv 13:7-10; 17:6), the beast being under the guidance of the harlot "drunken with their blood." The little horn of Da 7 therefore is the first beast of Rv 13. Neither the little horn nor the first beast is Antichrist, who is an individual; it is a polity.

VII. The beast from the earth and the bottomless pit, or the false prophet (Rv 11:7; 13:11-18; 17:8-18; 19:11-21).

The beast from the earth (Rv 13:11), or as he soon reveals himself (Rv 11:7; 17:8), from the bottomless pit, the false prophet (Rv 16:13; 19:20; 20:10), appears only when the harlot is unseated from the first beast. The harlot, the once pure woman (Rv 12) corrupted, the apostate church, is distinct from the beast which it rides. The church, though corrupted, retains the human form, i.e. God's image, in which man was originally formed. The beast is the world estranged from God and under Satan, and so, however powerful, intellectual, and refined, essentially bestial. The faithful city (Isa 1:21) having become Babylon, the whore (Rome on the seven hills, Rv 17:9) is punished in righteous retribution by that world upon which she rode, and for which she abandoned her faithful witness for God (Rv 17). Then after her judgment follows Antichrist's development. The "falling away" of 2 Th 2:3 answers to the first beast of Rv 13, also to the departure from the faith, in enforced celibacy, asceticism, doctrines of demons, etc., of 1 Ti 4:1-3.

In the second Council of Nice, A.D. 787, image worship was sanctioned. In 754 the temporal power of the popes began by Pepin's grant to Pope Stephen III of the three territories (answering to the three horns plucked up before the little horn, Da 7:8): Rome, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the exarchate of Ravenna; 1,260 years from this date would end in 2014. Others date from A.D. 533 AD, Justinian's edict acknowledging Pope John II as head of the church. The wounding to death and then the healing of the beast's deadly wound answers to the revival of idolatry and the setting up of a virtually pagan kingdom again at Rome in the eighth century (Rv 13:3). Again, in the case of the second beast or the false prophet, the wound given at the Reformation is healed, and he appears again as "the beast that was, and is not, yet is," a resurrection man, the embodiment of a resurrection empire, a mock Christ; as the true Christ saith, "I am He that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore" (Rv 1:18; 17:8). As Christ is the second Person in the Trinity, so Antichrist is the second in the anti-trinity, composed of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet (who bears witness to the first beast, as the Holy Spirit witnesseth of the Son).

Antichrist's characteristics (2 Th 2; 1 Jn 2:18-22; 4:3) shall be open opposition to God and religion, a claim to God's exclusive prerogatives, lawlessness, power of lying miracles and of beguiling souls under Satan's energizing, having a lamb's horns, i.e., outwardly resembling Christ or Messiah (Rv 13:11); sitting in God's temple as God, apparently restored Israel's persecutor, whence the sacred Hebrew is the language of Da 10-12, wherein the little horn from the East is a leading subject, whereas the world's language, Chaldee, is that of Da 7 wherein the Romish little horn is described. At first hailed by Israel with hosannah's as her Messiah (Jn 5:43), and making a covenant with the Jews, then breaking it (Da 9; 11; 12; Zec 11:1; 12; 13; 14). Antichrist, as the second beast or false prophet, will be personally an avowed atheist (1 Jn 2:22), yet represent himself as the decaying church's vindicator, compel men to reverence her, breathe new life into her by using the secular arm in her behalf (Rv 13:12-17), concentrating in himself the infidel lawless spirit working in the world from Paul's days (2 Th 2:7). Heretofore infidelity and superstition have been on opposite sides, but when these shall combine against law, liberty, and Christianity, a period mercifully brief shall ensue, unparalleled in horrors by any that has gone before (Da 12:1-3).

The two witnesses (Rv 11) are variously explained as Moses and Elijah; Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the civil prince; the Word and the faithful church, to be slain or suppressed, perhaps about the same time that the harlot too is judged by the beast or Antichrist (Rv 17; 18; 19.) The place of their temporary death is Jerusalem (Rv 11:8), "where our Lord was crucified."

"The number of the beast" is 666, i.e. 6, the world's number, in units, tens, and hundreds. Six is next to the sacred seven, which it mimics but falls short of; it is the number of the world given over to judgment. There is a pause between the sixth and seventh seals, the sixth and seventh trumpets: for the judgments of the world are completed in six; at the seventh the world kingdoms become Christ's. As twelve is the number of the church, so six, its half, symbolizes the world kingdoms broken. The radicals in Christ are CH, R, and ST (chi, rho, and sigma); Antichrist's monogram impersonates it, but falls short of it, Ch X St (chi, xi, and sigma) (666). It is curious that the only unquestionable 666 (1 Ki 10:14; 2 Ch 9:13) in the Old Testament is the 666 talents of gold that came in yearly to Solomon, and were among the correcting influences that misled him. Moreover, the only two Greek nouns in the New Testament, whose value numerically is exactly 666, are precisely the two expressing the grand corrupters of the church and sources of idolatry, "tradition" (paradosis), the corrupter of doctrine, "wealth" or the pursuit of it (euporia, only in Ac 19:25), the corrupter of practice (Col 3:5). The children of Adonikam are 666 in Ezr 2:13, but 667 in Ne 7:18. Adonijah, bearing the name of the Lord Jehovah, rose up against the Lord's anointed, and so is a type of Antichrist. The Hebrew letters of Balaam (type of the false prophet whose spiritual knowledge shall be perverted to Satanic ends; Rv 2:14 favors this, also the fact that Antichrist mainly shall oppress Israel, Da 8; 9; 11; 12) amount to 666. The Greek letters of Lateinos (Irenaeus), Rome's language in all official acts, amount to 666. The forced unity marked by Rome's ritual being everywhere in Latin is the premature counterfeit of the true unity, only to be realized when Christ, God's true Vicar on earth, shall appear, and all the earth shall "in a pure language serve the Lord with one consent" (Zep 3:9). The last Antichrist will be closely connected with his predecessor (as the second beast is with the first in Rv 13), and will arrogate all Rome's claims besides those peculiar to himself.

(from Fausset's Bible Dictionary, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1998 by Biblesoft)

Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary

A false prophet and evil being who will set himself up against Christ and the people of God in the last days before the SECOND COMING. The term is used only in the writings of John in the New Testament. It refers to one who stands in opposition to all that Jesus Christ represents (1 Jn 2:18,22; 4:3; 2 Jn 7). John wrote that several antichrists existed already in his day-false teachers who denied the deity and the incarnation of Christ-but that the supreme Antichrist of history would appear at some future time.

The Antichrist's primary work is deception, which also characterizes SATAN in his attempts to undermine the work of God in the world. Satan's deception began in the Garden of Eden (Ge 3) and will continue until the end of time. The DRAGON (or serpent) of Rv 12 is Satan, the Serpent mentioned in Ge 3. Thus the thread of Satan's deceptive work may be traced from Genesis through Revelation. That work reaches its climax in the Antichrist, who receives his authority and power from the dragon, Satan (Rv 13:4).

The work of Satan through the Antichrist is clearly rooted in the prophecies of Daniel. Daniel spoke of a dreadful beast with ten horns and one little horn (Da 7:7-8). The Ancient of Days will kill the beast and throw it in the fire (Da 7:11). Then, according to Daniel, one like the Son of Man will receive the everlasting kingdom (Da 7:13-14).

The Antichrist will be the sum total of the beasts referred to in Da 7 (Rv 13:1-4). He will speak arrogant, boastful words; and he will be aided by a FALSE PROPHET, who will make the entire earth worship him (Rv 13:11-12) and receive his mark (Rv 13:16-17). The number of the beast, says John, is 666-a mysterious code name.

Those who worship the Antichrist will experience certain doom through the wrath of God (Rv 14:9-11). The Antichrist makes war against Christ and His army, but he is captured and is "cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Rv 19:20). He is later joined by the DEVIL; together they "will be tormented day and night forever and ever" (Rv 20:10). The devil, the BEAST (or Antichrist), and the false prophet form a kind of unholy trinity, counterfeiting Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. After much wickedness and suffering has been loosed against Christ and His people, the satanic rebellion will be crushed by the power of God.

Although the apostle Paul does not use the term Antichrist, he surely had the Antichrist in mind when he wrote of the great apostasy, or falling away, that would occur before the return of Christ (2 Th 2:1-12). The Antichrist is also called the lawless one (v. 9) who, empowered and inspired by Satan, will lead the final rebellion against God (v. 3, NEB), but will be destroyed at the coming of the Lord. Paul urges believers to stand firm in the faith and not be deceived by the Antichrist who will display "all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders" (2 Th 2:9, NIV).

The main reason the Bible discusses the Antichrist is not to encourage idle speculation, but to warn believers not to be misled by his deceit (Mt 24:4-5,23-24). The times when the Antichrist will appear will be very hard for the faithful. They need to be prepared with special instructions on how to deal with this unsettling event.

(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

Easton's Bible Dictionary

— against Christ, or an opposition Christ, a rival Christ. The word is used only by the apostle John. Referring to false teachers, he says (1 Jn 2:18,22; 4:3; 2 Jn 7), "Even now are there many antichrists."

(1.) This name has been applied to the "little horn" of the "king of fierce countenance" (Da 7:24,25; 8:23-25).
(2.) It has been applied also to the "false Christs" spoken of by our Lord (Mt 24:5,23,24).
(3.) To the "man of sin" described by Paul (2 Th 2:3,4,8-10).
(4.) And to the "beast from the sea" (Rv 13:1; 17).

(from Easton's Bible Dictionary, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Smith's Bible Dictionary

This term is employed by the apostle John alone, and is defined by him in a manner which leaves no doubt as to its intrinsic meaning. With regard to its application there is less certainty. In the first passage — 1 Jn 2:18 — in which it occurs, the apostle makes direct reference to the false Christs whose coming, it had been fore-told, should mark the last days. In v. 22 we find, "he is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son;" and still more positively, "every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of antichrist." Comp. 2 Jn 7. From these emphatic and repeated definitions it has been supposed that the object of the apostle in his first epistle was to combat the errors of Cerinthus, the Docetae and the Gnostics on the subject of the Incarnation. (They denied the union of the divine and human in Christ.) The coming of Antichrist was (believed to be foretold in the "vile person" of Daniel's prophecy, Da 11:21, which received its first accomplishment in Antiochus Epiphanes but of which the complete fulfillment was reserved for the last times. He is identified with "the man of sin, the son of perdition." 2 Th 2:3. This interpretation brings Antichrist into close connection with the gigantic power of evil, symbolized by the "beast," Rv 13:1, who received his power from the dragon (i.e. the devil, the serpent of Genesis), continued for forty and two months, and was invested with the kingdom of the ten kings who destroyed the harlot Babylon, Rv 17:12,17, the city of seven hills. The destruction of Babylon is to be followed by the rule of Antichrist for a short period, Rv 17:10, to be in his turn overthrown in "the battle of that great day of God Almighty," Rv 16:14, with the false prophet and all his followers. Rv 19. The personality of Antichrist is to be inferred as well from the personality of his historical precursor as from that of him to whom he stands opposed. Such an interpretation is to be preferred to that which regards Antichrist as the embodiment and personification of all powers and agencies inimical to Christ, or of the Antichristian might of the world.

(from Smith's Bible Dictionary, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

The word "antichrist" occurs only in 1 Jn 2:18,22; 4:3; 2 Jn 7, but the idea which the word conveys appears frequently in Scripture.

I. In the Old Testament. - As in the Old Testament the doctrine concerning Christ was only suggested, not developed, so is it with the doctrine of the Antichrist.

Antichrist in the Old Testament: That the Messiah should be the divine Logos, the only adequate expression of God, was merely hinted at, not stated: so Antichrist was exhibited as the opponent of God rather than of His anointed. In the historical books of the Old Testament we find "Belial" used as if a personal opponent of Yahweh; thus the flagitiously wicked are called in the King James Version "sons of Belial" (Jdg 19:22; 20:13), "daughter of Belial" (1 Sa 1:16), etc. The Revised Version (British and American) translates the expression in an abstract sense, "base fellows," "wicked woman." In Da 7:7-8 there is the description of a great heathen empire, represented by a beast with ten horns: its full antagonism to God is expressed in a little eleventh horn which had "a mouth speaking great things" and "made war with the saints" (Da 7:8,21). Him the 'Ancient of Days' was to destroy, and his kingdom was to be given to a 'Son of Man' (Da 9:1-14). Similar but yet differing in many points is the description of Antiochus Epiphanes in Da 8:9-12,23-25.

II. In the New Testament. - In the Gospels the activity of Satan is regarded as specially directed against Christ. In the Temptation (Mt 4:1-10; Lk 4:1-13) the Devil claims the right to dispose of "all the kingdoms of the world," and has his claim admitted.

1. Antichrist in the Gospels: The temptation is a struggle between the Christ and the Antichrist. In the parable of the Tares and the Wheat, while He that sowed the good seed is the Son of Man, he that sowed the tares is the Devil, who is thus Antichrist (Mt 13:37-39). Our Lord felt it the keenest of insults that His miracles should be attributed to Satanic assistance (Mt 12:24-32). In Jn 14:30 there is reference to the "Prince of the World" who "hath nothing" in Christ.

2. Antichrist in the Pauline Epistles: The Pauline epistles present a more developed form of the doctrine. In the spiritual sphere Paul identifies Antichrist with Belial. "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" (2 Co 6:15). 2 Thessalonians, written early, affords evidence of a considerably developed doctrine being commonly accepted among believers. The exposition of 2 Th 2:3-9, in which Paul exhibits his teaching on the 'Man of Sin,' is very difficult, as may be seen from the number of conflicting attempts at its interpretation. See MAN OF SIN. Here we would only indicate what seems to us the most plausible view of the Pauline doctrine. It had been revealed to the apostle by the Spirit that the church was to be exposed to a more tremendous assault than any it had yet witnessed. Some twelve years before the epistle was penned, the Roman world had seen in Caligula the portent of a mad emperor. Caligula had claimed to be worshipped as a god, and had a temple erected to him in Rome. He went farther, and demanded that his own statue should be set up in the temple at Jerusalem to be worshipped. As similar causes might be expected to produce similar effects, Paul, interpreting "what the Spirit that was in him did signify," may have thought of a youth, one reared in the purple, who, raised to the awful, isolating dignity of emperor, might, like Caligula, be struck with madness, might, like him, demand Divine honors, and might be possessed with a thirst for blood as insatiable as his. The fury of such an enthroned maniac would, with too great probability, be directed against those who, like the Christians, would refuse as obstinately as the Jews to give him Divine honor, but were not numerous enough to make Roman officials pause before proceeding to extremities. So long as Claudius lived, the Antichrist manifestation of this "lawless one" was restrained; when, however, the aged emperor should pass away, or God's time should appoint, that "lawless one" would be revealed, whom the Lord would "slay with the breath of his mouth" (2 Th 2:8).

3. Antichrist in the Johannine Epistles: Although many of the features of the "Man of Sin" were exhibited by Nero, yet the Messianic kingdom did not come, nor did Christ return to His people at Nero's death. Writing after Nero had fallen, the apostle John, who, as above remarked, alone of the New Testament writers uses the term, presents us with another view of Antichrist (1 Jn 2:18,22; 4:3; 2 Jn 7). From the first of these passages ("as ye have heard that antichrist cometh"), it is evident that the coming of Antichrist was an event generally anticipated by the Christian community, but it is also clear that the apostle shared to but a limited extent in this popular expectation. He thought the attention of believers needed rather to be directed to the antichristian forces that were at work among and around them ("even now have .... arisen many antichrists"). From 1 Jn 2:22; 4:3; 2 Jn 7 we see that the apostle regards erroneous views of the person of Christ as the real Antichrist. To him the Docetism (i.e. the doctrine that Christ's body was only a seeming one) which portended Gnosticism, and the elements of Ebionism (Christ was only a man), were more seriously to be dreaded than persecution.

4. Antichrist in the Book of Revelation: In the Book of Revelation the doctrine of Antichrist receives a further development. If the traditional date of the Apocalypse is to be accepted, it was written when the lull which followed the Neronian persecution had given place to that under Domitian - "the bald Nero." The apostle now feels the whole imperial system to be an incarnation of the spirit of Satan; indeed from the identity of the symbols, seven heads and ten horns, applied both to the dragon (Rv 12:3) and to the Beast (Rv 13:1), he appears to have regarded the raison d`etre of the Roman Empire to be found in its incarnation of Satan. The ten horns are borrowed from Da 7, but the seven heads point, as seen from Rv 17:9, to the "seven hills" on which Rome sat. There is, however, not only the Beast, but also the "image of the beast" to be considered (Rv 13:14-15). Possibly this symbolizes the cult of Rome, the city being regarded as a goddess, and worshipped with temples and statues all over the empire. From the fact that the seer endows the Beast that comes out of the earth with "two horns like unto a lamb" (Rv 13:11), the apostle must have had in his mind some system of teaching that resembled Christianity; its relationship to Satan is shown by its speaking "as a dragon" (Rv 13:11). The number 666 given to the Beast (Rv 13:18), though presumably readily understood by the writer's immediate public, has proved a riddle capable of too many solutions to be now readily soluble at all. The favorite explanation Neron Qecar (Nero Caesar), which suits numerically, becomes absurd when it implies the attribution of seven heads and ten horns. There is no necessity to make the calculation in Hebrew; the corresponding arithmogram in the Sib Or, 1:32830, in which 888 stands for Iesous, is interpreted in Greek On this hypothesis Lateinos, a suggestion preserved by Irenaeus (V, 30) would suit. If we follow the analogy of Daniel, which has influenced the Apocalyptist so much, the Johannine Antichrist must be regarded as not a person but a kingdom. In this case it must be the Roman Empire that is meant.

III. In Apocalyptic Writings. - Although from their eschatological bias one would expect that the Jewish Apocalytic Writings would be full of the subject, mention of the Antichrist occurs only in a few of the apocalypses.

Antichrist in the Apocalyptic Writings: The earliest certain notice is found in the Sibylline books (1:167). We are there told that "Beliar shall come and work wonders," and "that he shall spring from the Sebasteni (Augusti)" a statement which, taken with other indications, inclines one to the belief that the mad demands of Caligula, were, when this was written, threatening the Jews. There are references to Beliar in the XII P, which, if the date ascribed to them by Dr. Charles, i.e. the reign of John Hyrcanus I, be assumed as correct, are earlier. Personally we doubt the accuracy of this conclusion. Further, as Dr. Charles admits the presence of many interpolations, even though one might assent to his opinions as to the nucleus of the XII P, yet these Beliar passages might be due to the interpolator. Only in one passage is "Beliar" antichristos as distinguished from antitheos; Da 5:10-11 (Charles' translation), "And there shall rise unto you from the tribe of Judah and of Levi the salvation of the Lord, and he shall make war against Beliar, and execute everlasting vengeance on our enemies, and the captivity shall he take from Beliar and turn disobedient hearts unto the Lord." Dr. Charles thinks he finds an echo of this last clause in Lk 1:17; but may the case not be the converse?

The fullest exposition of the ideas associated with the antichrist in the early decades of Christian history is to be found in the Ascension of Isaiah. In this we are told that "Beliar" (Belial) would enter into "the matricide king" (Nero), who would work great wonders, and do much evil. After the expiry of 1,332 days during which he has persecuted the plant which the twelve apostles of the Beloved have planted, "the Lord will come with his angels and with armies of his holy ones from the seventh heaven, with the glory of the seventh heaven, and he will drag Beliar into Gehenna and also his armies" (4:3,13, Charles' translation). If the date at which Beliar was supposed to enter into Nero was the night on which the great fire in Rome began, then the space of power given to him is too short by 89 days. From the burning of Rome till Nero's death was 1,421 days. It is to be noted that there are no signs of the writer having been influenced either by Paul or the Apocalypse. As he expected the coming of the Lord to be the immediate cause of the death of Nero, we date the writing some months before that event. It seems thus to afford contemporary and independent evidence of the views entertained by the Christian community as to Antichrist.

IV. In Patristic Writings. Of the patristic writers, Polycarp is the only one of the Apostolic Fathers who refers directly to Antichrist.

Patristic References to Antichrist: He quotes John's words, "Whosoever doth not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is Antichrist" (7), and regards Docetism as Antichrist in the only practical sense. Barnabas, although not using the term, implies that the fourth empire of Daniel is Antichrist; this he seems to identify with the Roman Empire (Da 4:5). Irenaeus is the first-known writer to occupy himself with the number of the Beast. While looking with some favor on Lateinos, he himself prefers Teitan as the name intended (5:30). His view is interesting as showing the belief that the arithmogram was to be interpreted by the Greek values of the letters. More particulars as to the views prevailing can be gleaned from Hippolytus, who has a special work on the subject, in which he exhibits the points of resemblance between Christ and Antichrist (On Christ and Antichrist, 4,14,15. 19,25). In this work we find the assertion that Antichrist springs from the terms of Jacob's blessing to Dan. Among other references, the idea of Commodian (250 AD) that Nero risen from the dead was to be Antichrist has to be noticed. In the commentary on Revelation attributed to Victorinus of Petau there is, inserted by a later hand, an identification of Genseric with the "Beast" of that book. It is evident that little light is to be gained on the subject from patristic sources.

V. Mediaeval Views. - Much time need not be spent on the mediaeval views of Antichrist in either of the two streams in which it flowed, Christian and Jewish.

1. Christian Views: The Christian was mainly occupied in finding methods of transforming the names of those whom monkish writers abhorred into a shape that would admit of their being reckoned 666. The favorite name for this species of torture was naturally Maometis (Mohammed). Gregory IX found no difficulty in accommodating the name of Frederic II so as to enable him to identify his great antagonist with "the beast coming up out of the sea": this identification the emperor retorted on the pope. Rabanus Maurus gives a full account of what Antichrist was to do, but without any attempt to label any contemporary with the title. He was to work miracles and to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. The view afterward so generally held by Protestants that the papacy was Antichrist had its representatives among the sects denounced by the hierarchy as heretical, as the Kathari. In various periods the rumor was spread that Antichrist had been already born. Sometimes his birthplace was said to be Babylon, sometimes this distinction was accorded to the mystical Babylon, Rome.

2. Jewish Views: The Jewish views had little effect on Christian speculation. With the Talmudists Antichrist was named Armilus, a variation of Romulus. Rome is evidently primarily intended, but Antichrist became endowed with personal attributes. He makes war on Messiah, son of Joseph, and slays him, but is in turn destroyed by Messiah, Son of David.

VI. Post-Reformation Views. - In immediately post-Reformation times the divines of the Romish church saw in Luther and the Reformed churches the Antichrist and Beast of Revelation.

Post-Reformation Theories of Antichrist: On the other hand the Protestants identified the papacy and the Roman church with these, and with the Pauline Man of Sin. The latter view had a certain plausibility, not only from the many undeniably antichristian features in the developed Roman system, but from the relation in which the Romish church stood to the city of Rome and to the imperial idea. The fact that the Beast which came out of the earth (Rv 13:11) had the horns of a lamb points to some relation to the lamb which had been slain (Rv 5:6). Futurist interpreters have sought the Antichrist in historical persons, as Napoleon III. These persons, however, did not live to realize the expectations formed of them. The consensus of critical opinion is that Nero is intended by the Beast of the Apocalypse, but this, on many grounds, as seen before, is not satisfactory. Some future development of evil may more exactly fulfil the conditions of the problem.

LITERATURE. --Bousset, Der Antichrist; "The Antichrist Legend," The Expositor T, contains an admirable vidimus of ancient authorities in the subject. See articles on subject in Schenkel's Biblical Lexicon (Hausrath); Herzog's See Hauck-Herzog, Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 2 nd edition (Kahler), 3 rd edition (Sieffert); Encyclopaedia Biblica (Bousset); with Commentaries on 2 Thes and Revelation. A full account of the interpretations of the "Man of Sin" may be seen in Dr. John Eadie's essay on that subject in his Commentary onThessalonians.
J.E.H. THOMSON

(from the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft

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